Students thank legislators for work on state funding

Friday

Apr 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMApr 27, 2012 at 1:00 PM

Rudi Keller

JEFFERSON CITY — The question of how much state money to give the University of Missouri is off the table in upcoming budget negotiations, House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, told students rallying at the Capitol yesterday.

Silvey and Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, were honored as Legislators of the Year by the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, the multi-campus student organization. The budget for the university cleared the Senate late Tuesday with $398.2 million set aside for the school.

That's $5.6 million less than lawmakers approved last year but about $5 million more than Gov. Jay Nixon has allowed to be spent.

Nixon opened the year proposing a 12.5 percent cut in funding to state colleges and universities, about $106 million in all. Nixon restored $40 million of that with the announcement of a national mortgage fraud settlement.

Republicans made fighting those cuts a political priority from the beginning of the session.

"This year we finally draw a line in the sand," Silvey said to group of about 150 students with T-shirts proclaiming, "Less is More," a reference to funding that is below 2001 levels with 17,000 more students on UM's four campuses.

Zach Toombs, director of student communication for the Missouri Students Association, the Columbia campus' student government, said the students wanted to thank lawmakers who worked to block the cuts.

"We need the state to do their part," he said. "And we want to thank the legislators who fought for the students."

Earlier, the MSA had delivered 8,000 letters to Nixon and lawmakers opposing cuts. Yesterday's turnout was good for a class day close to finals, Toombs said.

Schaefer, who survived a two-day budget standoff followed by more than six hours of debate, said flat funding for higher education "in this budget … is a huge, huge win." He promised the students he would continue to pursue passage of a bill to give the student representative on the UM Board of Curators a vote in its proceedings. That proposal has had champions in every legislature since the 1980s.

Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter, and Rep. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, also spoke, as did Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia. Mayer said the students had been effective advocates. "We know that cuts to education have a dramatic effect on your future and your ability to be competitive," he said.

Holsman is the sponsor of a bill that would cap a student's tuition at the rate paid when entering school. It had a hearing in the House but has not reached the floor for debate.

The good news about next year's funding should be viewed realistically, Kelly told the students. "It is a tiny, tiny good thing in a sea of incredibly inappropriate funding," he said.

Without new revenue, funding will lag behind past levels, Kelly said. "We don't need to be talking about whether we can keep our head barely above the flood. It is about fixing the boat."

As the recession shrunk revenue in Nixon's first two years in office, he cut deals with college and university presidents to freeze tuition in exchange for limited cutbacks. Lawmakers did not extract that promise this year, and Toombs said students understand some tuition increases are inevitable.

"The board has to make up for the cuts over the last two years," he said. "They have to do what they have to do."

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